


Incompatibilities

by tauri



Category: Pocket Monsters: X & Y | Pokemon X & Y Versions
Genre: Community: fan_flashworks, M/M, perfectworldshipping - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-02
Updated: 2015-10-02
Packaged: 2018-04-24 11:31:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4917901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tauri/pseuds/tauri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sycamore has work to do, Lysandre has his own plans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Incompatibilities

If asked why he spent so much time at Augustine's laboratory, Lysandre wasn't sure that he would have been able to give a reply. For that reason, he felt, it was fortunate that that was not a question likely to be asked; the lights were turned low and the assistants had gone home and, for that evening, it would be only he and Augustine within the building. For that evening, and like many others. It wasn't beyond the realms of possibility for Augustine himself to raise the question, but they had spent too many evenings like this for it to be anything out of the ordinary.

Each new season brought with it the newest collection of Pokémon trainers. They would be given their Pokémon and go off on their journeys, and their beginnings meant the end of the ongoing paperwork and admin behind the scenes. Augustine went between the tablet in his hands to the piles of paper on his desk, walking back and forth in thought and consideration.

"... Lysandre."

"Yes?"

"You don't have to stay here if you don't want to, you know."

Augustine was unlikely to ask _why_ , but he often seemed confused by the concept of Lysandre's continued presence. Lysandre understood it - Augustine seemed at his most content when he was able to lavish attention upon people, and _this_ was not _that_. He understood Augustine's desire to entertain for as long as there was another person in the room, but wasn't sure how to deflect that need. "You don't need to be so concerned. This is enough."

Throwing himself onto the sofa in the space between Lysandre's seated form and the arm, Augustine leant up against Lysandre as he tapped away at the tablet. "I still have so much to get through, though. You don't need to stay here if you're bored, you really don't! I'm just going to be doing this until I get tired. Then I'll wake up tomorrow and continue..." He sighed deeply. "I should have been doing this weeks ago."

"Is there anything that I can aid you with?"

"Oh! Oh, uh... no, no, it's fine. I've got a system going. Besides, this is my job! It's my own fault for leaving them until now. If I have to suffer some late nights for it, then that's just the situation I've put myself in."

Lysandre made an amused sound. "Your convictions are almost admirable."

"Maybe it's time to take a break, though. I can bring some coffee over, if you'd like--"

"Augustine."

"... Yes?"

"Do your work. Breaks can wait." He paused for a moment. "If you would like for me to bring you a drink, however, then--"

"Oh, no, no, I'm fine. No, you're right. I'll get this done and then maybe we can go out for a drink tomorrow, how about that?"

Lysandre wasn't quite sure when this had become a discussion, but didn't mind playing along. "If you've finished your work in that time, then I see no problems."

"Hahaaa... right, yes..."

Augustine fell into silence, scrolling through paragraphs of text before tapping out his decisions and opinions. Lysandre would glance over occasionally, catching the sight of photos of trainers for the brief half-second before they scrolled up and off the screen.

For as long as there were Pokémon, there would be Pokémon trainers. Across each region, thousands of them, throughout the year. Augustine did his best and was enthusiastic about his job, and Lysandre admired that. He admired that, but it exhausted him. (He closed his eyes, arms folded, Sycamore's head against his shoulder.)

Over and over, this would repeat. Pokémon trainers, battles, leagues, champions, over and over and over. Each individual story following a pattern deeply woven into the consciousness of their age. It felt like there was little question of it, either; children grew to expect their own Pokémon journey, eagerly awaiting the day that they become old enough to take on that responsibility. Society encouraged that. So many dreams and desires, all wrapped around the existence of Pokémon. Unable to do anything for themselves, relying on Pokémon to bring them fulfillment.

Lysandre allowed himself a small, bitter smile. _And yet, could I claim that my own aims are any different?_ Mankind relied too much on Pokémon. In order to highlight that error, Lysandre himself needed the power of a Pokémon. That, too, was an exhausting thought.

These nights spent in Augustine's laboratory felt almost like cheating. They could stay there for hours, Lysandre with his thoughts and Augustine with his... whatever it was he had to do that day. Mankind was beyond help and Pokémon needed to be saved from themselves - and then came the quiet moments which felt more like a luxury than anything else. Augustine was not exempt from that generalization; Lysandre knew him well enough to know that he simply wouldn't agree with what needed to be done. He was a Pokémon professor, after all. As a result, Augustine would feel the pressure of his deadlines with no comprehension of that which Lysandre himself had set - there was no specific time just yet, but there would be one, and _soon_. Their research had been coming on in leaps and bounds of recent, and Lysandre knew that progress was within their reach. Too long he'd been formulating these plans, frustrated by those around him and the length of timeframe needed to set his plans into action.

The sound of light snoring shook Lysandre from his thoughts. Rather predictably, Augustine had fallen asleep, clutching the tablet across his chest. Lysandre moved gently, so as not to disturb him. It wasn't the first time that he'd fallen asleep in the laboratory and Lysandre was quite sure that it wouldn't be the last, _and yet you're never prepared, are you?_ He supposed that bringing things such as pillows and blankets to the laboratory was almost like setting up for defeat. Lysandre took the tablet away, placing it on the nearby table, before shrugging his jacket from his shoulders and draping it over Augustine's slumbering form.

So many things that Augustine didn't know. _It is unfair_ , Lysandre would think to himself. _If I were to find the right way to explain it to you, I'm sure you'd understand._

Until that point, however, Lysandre would visit the laboratory and stay with Augustine, telling him nothing. Explaining the plan, Lysandre knew, had the potential to destroy everything. _The plan is to destroy everything_. Until that point, Augustine could be the enthusiastic happy fool he'd always been, untroubled by the weight of mankind's failures.


End file.
